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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium

THEME: AMEN CORNERS (1A: Parts of churches appropriate to this puzzle) - rebus puzzle, where AMEN appears in each corner of the grid

A very nice puzzle. Interestingly, I learned the term AMEN CORNER from ... [wait for it] ... Crosswords! I am just now beginning to realize how much of my general knowledge base had its origins in the crosswords. Why go to college? Just do crosswords every day, look up what you don't know, and shazam: Edumacation!

Blanked out during my first pass as the Northern Acrosses. Nothing came to me until TRI (19A: Angular opening?) which was the first of a run of correct first guesses, including 7.5 of the next 9 Acrosses:

20A: Follower of Max or Paul? (-ine)

21A: Ones with cool jobs? (ice men)

22A: Veronica of "Hill Street Blues" (Hamel) - the one I did NOT know

24A: Frenzied (amok)

26A: "Do _____ others..." ("unto")

28A: Petri dish gel (agar)

29A: Touch up, as text (edit)

30A: Italian leaders (duces) - I was half right: I had DOGES

31A: Quick change artist? (teller)

Not a bad run. Oh, right, the theme answers. I almost forgot. I got the theme while puzzling over the intersection of 9A and 14D in the NE corner. It was really 14D that tipped it - I could get nothing meaning [Adds to or subtracts from] in three letters. Looked at 9A, where I had CAMERA, and when that didn't fit the clue, I realized something was up with the "A." Ta da.

1D: "You sure said it!" ("AMEN to that!") - my least favorite of the theme answers, because AMEN is used as ... AMEN

9A: TV news crew (camerAMEN)

14D: Adds to or subtracts from (AMENds)

60D: Filament holder (stAMEN)

65A: Factor in a hotel rating (AMENities)

66A: Egyptian royal (TutankhAMEN) - nice; possibly the best of them today

46D: Citizen soldiers (militiAMEN)

Weird to have the completely unrelated END RESULT (36A: Consequence) in the high-profile center Across position, but no big deal. The center Down answer - also non-thematic - is very fresh: MIMETIC (25D: Imitative). And much of the non-theme stuff is compelling, or at least ... let's say, bouncy. Especially happy to see my old home MICH. in the puzzle today (49A: Thumb locale: Abbr.). Like living in a giant mitt.

Question marks for the day:

9D: Wood block for holding an object steady (chock) - I've heard of CHOCK-A-BLOCK, but CHOCK by itself? No. Are they related? Well, yes, and, as usual, World Wide Words breaks it down nicely.

32D: Prefix with spore (endo-) - Botany? Bota ... no.

50D: Tony winner for "Sweeney Todd," 1979 (Cariou) - I had the -IOU in place (not to future constructors: his name breaks nicely into CAR I.O.U.) and knew instantly who it was, without knowing who in the world the guy is, what he looks like, etc. Anyone who's been doing xwords long enough has surely seen [Actor Cariou] as a clue. Never seen CARIOU in the grid (that I remember) - I love when common crossword stuff changes medium (from clue to fill, vice versa)

53D: Edvard _____, Czech president and patriot (Benes) - While I admire that the puzzle passed up a potential "Seinfeld" reference, I have no idea what to do with this. Got it all from crosses.

53A: City south of Delray Beach, for short (Boca) - OK, it's not that hard, but there are so many damned place names in Florida that sound the same to me that I can never retrieve any of them with anything like reliability.

56D: Setting for many episodes of TV's "Gilmore Girls" (Yale) - Never having seen this show (not once), I wrote in CAFE; I believe my answer must have Some validity - I'm sure I've seen an ad where those "girls" were in a CAFE.

Some pairings:

40D: Trattoria order (Campari)

48D: Trattoria order (scampi)

11D: Roomy dress (muu muu)

58D: Roomy dress (tent)

And finally the less obvious

29D: Mahler's "Das Lied von der _____" ("Erde")

45D: Where "Thy will" will be done, in part (on earth") - Great clue

How about [Where "Thy will" was not done] for 6D: Fall place (Eden). Yes, it is good.

59
comments:

I heart pretty much everything about this puzzle, and I do believe this is my first no-google Thursday – plus I love love love rebi! How far I’ve come after a year of hanging out in this space. :)

Had my AMEN moment when ‘adds to or subtracts from’ was beginning to cause premature greyness (oh who am I kidding) and I couldn’t understand why CAMERA was acceptable for the tv news crew. You hear people in film saying they’re “going to CAMERA” but this somehow didn’t seem right for the tv context.

Then it all just opened up. Way to get TUTANKHAMEN into a puzzle, Elizabeth C. Gorski! I take my hat off to you. I love all the other rebused answers as well. Fabulous!

I was pleased I didn’t fall on my TUSH a second time from ‘Thumb Locale: Abbr.’; I knew I knew this from a prior puzzle and it did come to me without a lot of teeth gnashing.

Rex, re: Gilmore Girls setting, strictly speaking, you probably saw them in their natural habitat, which was actually a diner. As a regular GG viewer, I would submit that 'cafe' was too frou frou for what it purported to be. ;)

I thought this was a really nice puzzle that was good less because of theme than general fill. Liked OUTTHERE, TELLER, PIECHART, MICH, HAMEL, ESSENCE especially, in that they were each slightly unusual without being improbably forced, as so often occurs. I learned AMENCORNER from Pat Buchanan, who used it unlovingly a few years back in referring to AIPAC, the U.S./Israel lobbying group.

LA being east of Reno is a great old trick trivia question....the best way to see it is to check it out on a globe.

Rex: When you change a tire on your car, you put a chock under the diagonally opposite tire to keep the car from rolling. And yes, Deion, the lower part of Michigan is referred to as the thumb because of its shape.

Anonymous may be drawing on a map that uses some sort of projection that skews the actual proportions. Los Angeles's coordinates are 34°03′N 118°15′W and Reno is at 39°31′38″N 119°49′19″W. So Reno's further west. One degree of latitude or longitude = 69.2 miles, so Reno must be about 90 miles west of L.A.

Really liked this puzzle even though, or because, I got lost for a while. Remained lost on MICH for Thumb locale until I came here - Wonderful clue. Totally arcane but perfectly clued. This is in contrast to ONUSES for Loads, which was quite a stretch. Unmodified, a Load is not an onus, a heavy load is, a burdey definately is, but not a simple load. I simply hate clues which depend on tertiary definitions of the solution.

PS: One can't use a flat map for fine detail in latitude - they're inaccurate projections. But try sticking a globe in your glove compartment.

Another major learning experience for me todayNever compose your post, go to the restroom, then submit it when you get back.By the time you do, at least 5 other people will have made the same comment, some better, and you'll look like an idiot piling on.

Totally off topic -- but there was a wonderful West Wing episode that had as a sub-plot the whole history of various map projections and how "skewed" some of our knowledge is about places because of what projection was used "back in the day".

Two quibbles with this one: First, if the puzzle uses the plural CONCERTI, then ONUSES should be ONERA.Second, I'm about to run AMOK -- that's at least the fourth time it's been used in the past ten days.

I knew the Reno / LA relationship. What I didn't know, and discovered this morning, was a whole new place -- beyond ADD, beyond Dyslexia -- where my brain converted Reno to Las Vegas, giving me SSW. Help!

Nice, somewhat tricky, cluing on ONUSES. Had trouble with the non-automatic TELLER (had "optimum" for OPTIMAL), which led to problems nailing the ERDE, ENDO area. And for 55a, PRAYER, I immediately filled in the last four letters as "amen" based on the clue...which led to Gilmore Girls in a Mall -- seemed feasible since I have never seen one of their settings.

IMAC has an egg-shaped design? Eggs are perfectly shaped. iMacs have (had) some curves. Ain't the same. It's as weird as saying Michigan looks like a mitten: mittens are much, much smaller. But then, I'm out there in that newly discovered territory, so what do I know......

btw, deion, Amen Corner comes from an old jazz record that was quoted by golf writer Herbert Warren Wind in reference to holes 11, 12, and 13 at Augusta National. Back around 1900, the center of Bible manufacturing was in lower New York City. The hub of that activity became a popular spot for sidewalk preachers to shout out the old-time religion (thus the song title). ... There were so many "Amen!" shouts heard each day, that the term "Amen Corner" evolved.Arnold Palmer played 11,12,and 13 so well that Wind wrote "AMEN" in appreciation.And that's the TRUTH!

Edumacation indeed! Every time I surprise my husband by correctly answering a very obscure Jeopardy clue, I almost invariably credit the crossword puzzle!

This was a real head slapper for a very stupid reason. I figured out the rebus the same way Rex did and had the whole north sewn up when I had to attend to other matters.

When I returned several hours later, I TOTALLY forgot about the rebus (and never looked back to the completed part of the puzzle). I was fine with militia sans the men, but oddly didn't worry in the least about King Tut's missing men, probably because I solved the downs first.

When I got to the SW, I was in for some serious HUH? moments. What 3 letter word starting with ST holds a filiment? Sty? Hotels rated on yities?????? Oy vey!

IMO, Erde is bucking for pantheon status and seems always to be clued the same way.

If rebus squares were bigger than normal squares, that would be a rather unsubtle hint that the puzzle is a REBUS! That would take away a lot of the fun, so don't expect that to happen.

If you are solving puzzles printed from Across Lite, however, you might try the "Print using two pages" option. If you click File, Print, you'll see the button. It gives you a grid that's a little bit larger than normal. That may help.

Jim - An alternative to John F's suggestion is to do the puzzle onscreen in Across Lite. When you detect a rebus go up to the task bar and click "edit". From the menu, select "insert". From the options that appear, select "multiple letters", in this case type "amen" in the space that appears. Then hit ENTER. The letters, in this case, will appear in the box as "AM..", which you will remember as "amen".

OR if you've printed the puzzle out, I suggest you enter the "A", as Rex's solution shows, and circle it to remind you it stands for "amen".

P.S. I'm 75 and have lots of troubles but writing more than one letter in a box isn't one of them, for which I'm thankful. But being of this age gives one the advantage of remembering things young whippersnappers like Rex have never heard of.

I always love Rebus puzzles. I wanted EMS for 35A Sounds of ambivalence – ERS seems more hesitant or addled than ambivalent.

Steven:I saw the WW episode and loved how shocked the WH reps (CJ Craig and Josh Lyman (geek check)) were when they saw the ‘to scale’ depiction of earth – they said something like ‘no one can see this’. Farther a field I saw an episode where the Prez’s chief of staff (Leo McGarry (big geek check)) called Will Shortz to admonish him on the variety of spellings used for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. He loudly rants on and on about meeting the man and shaking his hand until his able assistant (Margaret (over the top geeky)) grabs the phone from him in absolute awe. I remember feeling envy at the ability to complain directly to the source.

CONCERTI is the Italian plural of the Italian word used in English CONCERTO.

I usually photocopy the puzzle from the paper, enlarged 129% on weekdays, 121% on Sundays. (I almost gave up doing the WSJ when they changed its size to make it taller and narrower. It won't fit at 121% enlargement.)

There are two Latin words ANUS, btw. The well-known one has plural ANI, the more obscure one has plural ANUS (long u). The obscure one means "old hag", and is where the crosswordese ANILE comes from. Of course, your grandmother probably would not appreciate its use.

Holy Tutankhamen, I really dug this puz. It could be because everything seemed to be directly in my wheelhouse, but I really think it's because it was clever and fresh.I guess I've been affected by "No Country for Old Men," because I was really trying to force in some sort of smack for Decks(15A) instead of the nautical TOPSIDES.

It's a funny thing I noticed years ago with Michiganders from anywhere OTHER than Detroit.

Ask them where they are from, and many will hold up their right hands and point with their left index finger to a particular spot on their hands... representing the spot on the Mich map from which they hail. Those from the "thumb" naturally point to their thumbs.

This is true, BTW. I'm an Ohioan with lots of Michigan acquaintances and I've seen it a fair bit.

I find myself in the minority on this one, as I walked away from it pretty unsatisfied.

I rather liked all of the filler, but the theme really didn't get me going. My main issue was that some of the clues work without the Rebus (MILITA, CAMERA) so even though I didn't have satisfying answers to why ADS or TUTANKHA made sense, I soldiered on, and found myself very lost in the West until I filled in enough of NW to figure out what was going on.

I feel like rebus puzzles should be rarer than this (we just had one a month ago) and when the rebus is in a corner, it can make things way too complicated, especially if answers stand without the rebus. Rebus rebus rebus.

The only section that I (thought) I had filled in completely was the SE. MILITIA works just fine as the answer for that clue and that left me wondering why the constructor left out MUN from TUTAHNKHA (check it in Wiki for yourself).

Because of the above and knowing that ADS wasn't right I thought the puzzle might be some sort of rebus but couldn't get a handle on it. (I was also wondering what the heck ON USES was until I read this blog- thanks everyone!)

Finally, finally! I got AMENITIES and it all came together nicely.

Still got hung up on some things: I did know who Veronica HAMEL was but spelled it with an I- that really messed me up for a while. (Had me wondering who in mysteries was named IRMA (before I got TELLER).)Wondered why TELLER (of Penn & Teller) was being called a quick change artist until I realized it was a bank teller.Got MICH from the crosses and only later realized she was talking about the state and its boxing glove shape.Add me to the "MALL, not YALE" list.Lots of DUHs in this one, to be sure!Will have to remember ERDE- any time I see Mahler I just go on to the next one and pray for good crosses!Fave fill of the day: TUSHAnd finally, two gripes:Is a RUMOR really a buzz?TWO fills that start with RE (REREAD, REENTER). I guess I'm getting picky here.

I sat in a rocking chair out in the sun and ambled through this one with several interruptions. So I never really got into this one. Seems like I was fairly standard in getting the NE AMEN first. I just made a little star to stand in for the rebus letters. But Twinkly, in a way gave me STELLAR which sort of messed up the L.A. region. Not so keen on the Rare play being TRIPLE. I'm assuming that it's the defensive triple play that is being clued, and not the three-bagger? Either way seemed a little off. The cluing for RTE left me wondering about something more specific for our poor sales rep to get up to. And got stuck on the BOCA spot until I remembered Junior Soprano's adventure down there.

I liked it, even though I was flubbed by the rebus on the two eastern corners. Finally caught up in the SW. I got prayer early on and was searching for amens as I went along and STILL blindly accepted camera as a type of news crew and Tutankha as a shorten version of the boy pharaoh.

I didn't know amen corners, but figured it must be similar to Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park in London where orators come every Sunday morning to stand on their soapboxes (literally) and speak on whatever subject they choose.

Speaking of London, Rafthatmf are you British? The use of "em" for "um" seems prevalent in the UK. "Er" seems an acceptable alternative for either one.

Loved seeing Victoria Hamel in there. I always thought she was a beautiful woman and that HSBs was excellent television, as was the West Wing. (chuckle re: Leo's NYT rant).

I didn't know where the GGs was set, but oddly Yale was in nearly the same position yesterday as "where the Clintons met."

Rebus entries via the Across Lite format can also be made by hitting ESC. A box pops up. Fill in the letters and hit ESC or Enter to return to the puzzle.

My edumacation for the day included Benes and Salman, though the latter sounds very familiar, perhaps from a prior puzzle. And thanks to Rex for the Steve Martin pic. He's a wild and crazy guy!

Really enjoyed this one after I got going - only had to google Benes which gave me Boca and then the 'i' in Mich. First word I got was Hamel but it took a while for the theme to be established. Finally got it when I had blank 'corner ' for one across and the light bulb went on. When I was in college in London in the 60's I saw a great version of the play "The Amen Corner" in the West End.

Speaking of West Wing, last year I bought the entire boxed set of the series as a gift to me. Best present I ever got. Hours upon hours of one great television program, at least half of which I missed during regular broadcasts.

i really liked this puzzle even though, after breezing through most of the rest of it, the NW corner took me forever (followed, finally, by the corners). one beef: TELLERS for quick change artists? i wanted this to be some version of toll booth operators, waiters -- anybody who actually *makes change* (ie, you give them money, they give you your change).

Favorite West Wing moment: Abigail Bartlet, to Jed Bartlet, as Jed, suffering the shakes or something from whatever disease he had been concealing, is about to go on stage to announce he is running for a second term: "Smart people, who love you, have your back". Perfect words of encouragement.

Separated at birth: Dule Hill (Charlie on West Wing) and Ray Allen (guard on the Boston Celtics).

Rick... I checked out Salman after the fact and then remembered The Satanic Verses, though I didn't know the ex-husband of a chef part. Thanks.

Not to expound on the West Wing on Rex's watch, but I thought about it at Thanksgiving when Bush pardoned the turkey. Wasn't that the same episode where CJ sang, "I'm too sexy for my clothes, too sexy for some o-ther things" as she shimmied around the office like Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not? Cheese block. ;-)

I finally got to a wired spot and was able to do this clever and enjoyable puzzle. I discovered the rebus in NW like Rex did and immediately filled in the four corners and NE where I initially hadn't gotten much traction. I got a little hung up in the center but getting DEUT helped.

BTW Don't believe Holiday Inn Express's ads. The AMENITIES are not that great (e.g. no wifi).

I thought this a very elegant cross word puzzle. I actually figured out the theme / rebus through 1A. Twas the only reasonable solution. I used to think women constructors' puzzles were unusually esoteric and tough, but lately they have been just fine!

"Listen, when we get to Florida, don't call me Ratso, OK? My name is Rico. Rico Rizzo."

I was fortunate enough to see Len Cariou as Sweeney Todd, and he was STUNNING! (As was Angela Lansbury. As was the whole dang production.) And yes, it WAS fun to see his surname used as an answer, rather than as a clue for LEN.

Thanks to everyone for clarifying MICH for this life-long New Jerseyite.

I stared long and hard at the NE before getting ONUSES and HOUSED.

Veronica Hamel - yes, I seem to remember a LOT of guys lusting after her back in the day. I thought she was only a so-so actress, but she had real chemistry with Daniel J. Travanti. And HILL STREET BLUES _was_ a flat-out brilliant ensemble show that paved the way for (among others) THE WEST WING.

Today's theme was escaping me until I sussed out TUTANKHAMEN. Very clever use of AMEN CORNERS.

I share most of the comments from 6 weeks back. Indeed, before I realized the rebus AMEN was to located at each of the 4 corners, for the longest time I thought LAMENTS was the answer to 42A. Old Testament book: Abbr. as an abbreviation for LAMENTATIONS. Outsmarted myself - but the AMEN was tempting...

Only quibble: the CHOCK - ONUSES cross which was subpar (speaking of AMEN CORNER).